So Sawyer begins to explain the principles of the chapter and helped Ethan to see why he was struggling the way he was. It took an hour, but afterwards Ethan could breathe a lot better.
"This should help me out a lot. Thanks Sawyer."
"You're welcome. Gotta give your mom her money's worth."
"Cool. How long did she pay for?"
"I think your counselor said for a month. So I guess I'll be tutoring you for a month."
"Oh ok," Ethan remarked.
Sawyer left Ethan's house and went home, thinking about what had taken place and glad he could make a difference in the life of a fellow classmate.
Ethan was on the phone with one of his crushes. Alex was a sweet, but wild girl. With red hair and always wearing the same color lipstick, she was always hounding Ethan about something. This particular time was no different.
"So you're not going to the party? Ethan, it's your senior year. You have to lighten up," she whined.
"I have a study date. I'm struggling in calculus and I have to have this help. Otherwise I would go."
"Can't you just bring your books and your study partner over and study there? You can do both. You know everybody respects you and would let you study for a while to."
Ethan considered the possibility. "I'll have to run it by him first."
"Cool. Well hit me back once you know something."
"Ok."
Ethan knew asking Sawyer to go to a party wasn't going to be easy. He knew Sawyer was withdrawn and anti-social. Not that he judged Sawyer for it, in fact, sometimes Ethan was jealous. Ethan never had time to himself, always busy trying to make someone else happy. He envied Sawyer's quiet world. But still, Ethan knew it wasn't going to be easy to get Sawyer to go. Especially when he opened the door and saw that Sawyer wasn't in a good mood.
"Sup Sawyer. What's wrong? You look angry?"
"Really? I always look like this. You know I'm not a big smiler."
"Yeah that's true," Ethan responded nervously.
He motioned for Sawyer to come in and observed him as he made his way to the living room to set up for the study session.
He let Sawyer set the scene, then Ethan got his own books and placed them on the table. "Sawyer, I have a question to ask you."
Sawyer looked at Ethan with raised eyebrows. Something about Ethan's tone didn't set right with him.
"Yes?"
Ethan was suddenly nervous.
"My friends wanted to know if you wanted to go to a party tonight. We'd take our books there and study. and hang out."
Sawyer looked at Ethan like he was crazy.
"I don't go to parties Ethan. That's not how I have fun. Becoming your tutor did not include parties or hanging out with you outside of school activities."
Sawyer wasn't rude about it. He just stated what he had to say as a matter of fact.
It was Ethan's turn now to raise his eyebrows. "Yeah Sawyer I've seen how you roll. You walk through the halls alone. You eat lunch in the library to avoid the awkwardness of sitting alone." Sawyer went to respond to that one, but Ethan held up his hand to silence him. "During P.E. you work out by yourself and never speak to anyone. When you leave school each day I never see you walk out of the building with anyone. You are always by yourself all of the time. I understand the need for solitude but twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I mean, come on." Ethan slammed his book on the table and stormed off out of the dining room.
Sawyer stared after him with a mixture of fury and hurt etched on his face. Sawyer's reasoning was different from Ethans. He felt like Ethan breached a level of trust. He gave a special part of himself to Ethan he had never allowed another to have. Another classmate anyway. Ethan had been a confidant. A real friend. A hidden source of encouragement. I mean, Sawyer would look for him in the halls and secretly hope Ethan would look his way and say hello. Sawyer looked forward to those moments. Thought about them often. Then the words Ethan said reverberated back through his ears. "Twenty four hours a day. Seven days a week. Constantly alone."
